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Friday, March 13, 2015

A Little More about Aurilla (Rilley)

I do not know if the child Aurilla left behind lived to adulthood or not. I do know that Mat remarried and had a child. One or the other of his babies died but I don't know which. ( Research needed) He and his second wife are buried next to Aurilla's grave in the Scranton Cemetery. In the summer of 2009, I discovered Aurilla's gravesite just a few steps away from her parents and three of her siblings. Aurilla was the first family internment in the Scranton Cemetery. Her stone is old and hard to read. I had always known the location of the Withrow graves but never knew Aurilla was so close. I wonder if my mom even knew it was there. She never mentioned it on any of our many cemetery excursions. The same year I found a number of old pictures, keepsakes, and bits of paper in my mother's buffet. I also found a complete newpaper wrapped in a very heavy plastic. It was some time before I fiqured why that old newspaper had been saved. It was the newspaper that held Aurilla's obituary. This newspaper has passed through the hands of six generations.